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Crusaders' Liam Grant and Isabelle Joubeily were part of the triumphant team at the recently held County Championships in the Cadet Premier Division. Having gained promotion only last season, the Surrey Cadets' main ambition was to stay in the Premier. Other team members included Sasha Gillen and Juliette Moussarie (Ashford TTC) and Diogo Freitas (Graham Spicer TTC). Sasha had journeyed from France to join our squad of young stars.

In their opening match Surrey took on the title holders Lancashire and managed a 5-5 draw. A very strong Yorkshire team were next in line who squeezed past our team 6-4 to eventually take the title by a narrow margin. Sasha was unfortunate to lose to England No 9 James Hobson 8-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-13 and Liam Grant was narrowly defeated by England No 7 Harry Dai 11-8, 10-12, 10-12, 9-11. Isabelle battled well against the Engalnd No 3 Kate Nixon but lost out 11-5, 9-11, 12-12, 5-11. Next time guys!

Surrey did well to beat Sussex 6-4, Middlesex 7-3, Warwickshire 8-2, and Cleveland 10-0. In their final match Surrey forced Lincolnshire into relegation with a 7-3 victory. Liam Grant was outstanding in this match as he beat Nathan Butler 13-11 in the 5th after trailing 2-7. Following this he found himself 2 games to 1 down against England No 10 Matthew Leete only to win 11-8, 5-11, 6-11, 11-4, 11-4.

Isabelle finished the day with 11/14 (78.6%) having only lost to players ranked Nos 1, 2 and 3 in England. Surrey finished as highly respectable runners-up which has not been achieved by the county for some years.

Congratulations to Isabelle who found she had risen to No 5 in England – on her 14th birthday. Her 11 wins from the weekend will certainly help to consolidate her position.

For the fourth consecutive year the Sutton & District Table Tennis league has a teenage open singles champion. 17 year old Mickel Miller (Crusaders) has 100% wins in the top division and carried that form into the closed championships, winning the final against Goran Maric (Graham Spicer) 11-7, 11-5, 11-8.

Last year’s singles champion, Liam Grant, had been called up to play at Burton-on-Trent in the Cadet Masters where he joined 13 of England’s top cadets. Liam managed to finish among the top 10 in the country after an exhausting weekend of fierce competition.

In the doubles it was Steve Carpenter (Crusaders) and Goran Maric firstly surviving a tough semi final against Jeremy Wu and Steve Fagan (Eldon), winning from 2 games to nil down and then going on to win the final 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 against the Crusaders teenage pairing of Mickel Miller and Isabelle Joubeily.

Steve Carpenter was a double winner taking the veterans trophy against John Fannin (Graham Spicer) 11-7, 11-5, 11-6, but John went on to retain his Super Veterans title with victory over Jim Reeder (Eldon)11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5

Paul Rowley (Deckers) retained his division 2 singles title for the third consecutive year in a tough final against Guy Webster (Crusaders) eventually getting home 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 2-11, 11-2.

The handicap singles final was won convincingly by Andrew Jackson (Rosehill) beating Tony Stephens (Woodmansterne) 44-29.

Yet arguably the best final came in the Consolation Singles which was won in a tense match by Lee Farrier (Rosehill) 8-11, 11-7, 12-14, 11-6, 11-9 against Tom Higgs who became the 7th player to take 2 trophies at the Championships.

The Ladies singles was won by Michelle McGovern (Ballards) who won the final 6-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-8 against Isabelle Joubeily in her second final. Isabelle celebrated her 13th birthday only last month and potentially has a great future ahead of her. Little doubt she will be back next season to replace her two silver medals with gold.

Isabelle Joubeily (Crusaders)

Mickel Miller, new champion

Images courtesy of Michael Loveder.

Three days after the main tournament the Junior Championships took place with the standard noticeably much higher overall than previous years. The league has so many good juniors. The Cadet (under 15) semi finals were fiercely contested with Isabelle Joubeily (Crusaders) beating Andrew Jackson (Rosehill) 5-11, 11-9, 11-8, 14-12 and Guy Webster (Crusaders) beating Andrew Chapman (Rosehill) 6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 17-15.

The Final was yet another tense affair with both players showing remarkable temperament and won eventually by Guy Webster with a 9-11, 11-3, 6-11, 12-10, 11-6 victory over Isabelle Joubeily.

Unsurprisingly the main Junior (under 18) tournament was dominated by Michael Ho (Crusaders) currently with a senior ranking of 70 in England. In his semi-final he was too good for Joseph Joubeily (Crusaders) 11-5, 11-1, 11-6 while Guy Webster and Isabelle Joubeily met again in the other semi-final in an even closer match than previously with Guy winning 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 14-12. In the final Michael Ho beat Guy Webster 11-6, 11-3, 11-3.

Also, in the latest English Table Tennis Association national rankings published today, Isabelle Joubeily finds herself at England No 16 in the under 13’s category. This makes her the new Surrey No 1 cadet girl.

Croydon’s Mickel Miller, Wallington’s Liam Grant and Daniel Barna teamed up at the weekend to secure the Divisional Winners title in the Junior British League played at Tipton Sports Academy in the West Midlands.

The Division 2 title was in doubt right up to the last fixture in which Crusaders met the undefeated Rotherham Scorpions. On Saturday Crusaders won three matches against Halifax, Draycott East Midlands and Woodfield (Wolverhapton) to lead the division.

With Rotherham unexpectedly dropping a point against both Woodfield and Draycott, recording 3-3 draws, the Crusaders boys appeared to have things wrapped up. Then the unthinkable happened on Sunday morning as Crusaders lost 2-4 to bottom placed Deutsche Bank Guernsey to give them their only win of the season. Mickel Miller suffered his only defeat of the weekend to Lawrence Stacey 13-15, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8, 9-11 in his longest set of the campaign. The net effect was to leave Rotherham and Crusaders level on points with everything to play for in the final fixture.

Crusaders pulled themselves together and from the match score standing at 1-1 with Rotherham they never looked back, rattling off the next 4 for a scintillating 5-1 victory. England No 26 junior David Thompson again lost to Daniel Barna, who is now ranked 30 in the country, for a 3-1 lead.

The Sutton & District Table Tennis League closed championships were played at Graham Spicer TTC, New Malden. A new open singles champion emerged and he is only twelve years old. Wallington Crusaders have an excellent group of young players competing locally and it was young Liam Grant who won a dramatic final against another Crusaders junior, 15 year old George Harris, 4-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-7.

Singles and Doubles finalists Liam Grant (L) and George Harris (R)

With Crusaders dominating Division 1 of the league it was fitting that they provided both pairs in the open doubles final which was eventually won by the narrowest of margins with the unseeded pairing of Dean Rose and George Harris beating the favourites Michael Loveder and Liam Grant 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9 in another dramatic final.

Michael Loveder (Crusaders) also reached the veterans final (over 40s) but he could not quite contain Richard Parke (Graham Spicer), on his home territory, who won through 11-13, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8. The Super Veterans final (over 60s) was an all Graham Spicer affair with last year's winner, Banstead's John Fannin, holding on to his title by beating Joel Clancey 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-7.

Young Guy Webster (Crusaders) took two titles. He won the Division 3 singles 11-8, 11-6, 11-8 against Tunde Fasoyiro (Ballards) and in yet another nailbiting final won the consolation singles beating Oscar Williamson (Crusaders) 7-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-9.

The Sutton & District Table Tennis League junior (under 16 and under 18) championships were held at Rosehill Table Tennis Club and were well supported to provide a packed evening of matches. Both competitions were held in four groups with the group winners progressing to the semi finals. All the group winners were members of the Wallington Crusaders Table Tennis Club.

In the under 16s semis Mickel Miller beat Gagan Dhanjal 11-1, 11-6, 11-9 whilst the other semi final was more of a tense dramatic match which was finally won by Oscar Williamson beating Richard Pelc 11-13, 11-4, 11-6, 3-11, 12-10. Oscar then put up another battling performance in the final before losing to the strong favourite Surrey No 7 junior Mickel Miller 2-11, 14-12, 4-11, 7-11.

Mickel Miller and Oscar Williamson were to meet again this time in the semi final of the under 18 event but this time Mickel Miller won in straight games 11-5, 11-6,11-6. In the other semi final Michael Ho, the Surrey No 1 (and England top 20 junior player) had a comfortable win 11-1, 11-1, 12-10 against Tom Beales.

The evening culminated in a superb display of table tennis. The match of the night was undoubtedly the under 18 final in which Michael Ho overcame the challenge from Mickel Miller 8-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-7 to retain his junior crown.

The 2010 Closed Championships of the Sutton and District Table Tennis League were held yesterday at the West Sutton Youth Centre. In a dramatic final Patrick Beckley (Rosehill) retained his Open Singles title when he defeated Wallington’s 14 year old Michael Ho (Crusaders) 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6.The open doubles title went to Geoff Grange and Banstead’s John Fannin who were representing Graham Spicer TTC, New Malden. They beat Carshalton’s Oliver Kelly, who had paired up with Michael Ho, 11-8, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9.Michelle McGovern (Woodmansterne) enjoyed triple success. In the Ladies singles final she beat Pramila Muthiah (Ewell Cedars) 11-5, 11-4, 11-9. In the Division 2 final she beat her team colleague Martin Hunt (Woodmansterne) 11-4, 11-7, 13-11 and completed the hat trick of wins with a 11-5, 11-4, 11-3 win over Frank Ho (Crusaders) in the Consolation Singles final.Doubles winners Geoff Grange and John Fannin had further success, Geoff Grange beating team colleague John Fannin in an excellent Veterans (over 40’s) final 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6 while John Fannin won the Super Veterans (over 60’s) final beating Jim Reeder (Eldon, Croydon) 11-6, 11-4, 11-1.Another player to taste double success was Dariusz Siedlarski (Rosehill) who won the Division 3 singles beating Johnson Osonaike (Woodmansterne) 11-3, 11-2, 13-11 in the final and then added the handicap singles with a convincing 53-25 win over Oliver Kelly (Crusaders).The Division 4 singles final was another hard fought affair. Favourite Lewis Vidler (Carshalton LTC) had only lost one game in the League this season and played the 2008 winner of this competition Eham Mohan (Rosehill) but it was the latter who again rose to the occasion to beat Lewis Vidler 5-11, 11-4, 13-15, 11-6, 11-8.